Do Not Label Homosexuals 'Deviants'

This letter to the editor by a minority student responds to personal accounts from members of the University's LGBTQ community. The writer asserts that society's condemnation of gays as 'deviant' is damaging to their self esteem, and highlights the lack of public role models for members of the gay community.

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Do Not Label Homosexuals 'Deviants'
I felt compelled to respond to the touching honesty of the comments on the editorial page Friday, Aprl 6, especially those of "Anonymous.â€ Most of us will never experience the truly demeaning ordeal of being ostracized for something for whose origins we cannot be held responsible and which we cannot change. The closest comparison I could make is to the discrimination faced by those of minority races. However, even this analogy is not adequate. In a society in which sexuality receives an inordinate amount of attention, being a â€œdeviant" must be damaging to self-esteem.
Where, after all, are role models for homosexuals? Entertainment? Minority races are at least given token attention on "The Love Boat." Politics? I do not believe an avowed homosexual will be running for President in the elections in the near future. Religion? I know of no religious faith which does not make Judgments based on the condemnations of the Koran, the Old Testament or of the writings of St. Paul
So where does this leave the homosexuals? Isolated -- because of a lifestyle determined before they had a free will. And where does this leave me? Free to live without being labeled "deviant, abnormal, weird" because I am a heterosexual.
Perhaps it rather easy for me to step on my soap box with my "social conscience" banner, (after all, I am part of a majority in America, being upper middle class. white and Christian). I can only explain my motivation to write this letter as distress at the suffering of a fellow human being at the hands of others Let us not judge.
Melissa L Gluck
CLAS II